Pope Francis reportedly phoned an Argentine woman the other day to tell her it’s OK for her to receive communion despite the fact that she’s married to a divorced man.

This gesture seemingly is at odds with long-standing church teachings — and thus is of great concern to Catholic traditionalists.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat is one of them, as we see HERE:

Francis could actually be considering a truly major shift on remarriage and communion, in which the annulment requirement is dispensed with and (perhaps) a temporary penance is substituted.

Such a shift wouldn’t just provoke conservative grumbling; it would threaten outright schism. The church has famous martyrs to the indissolubility of Christian marriage, and its teaching on divorce and adultery is grounded not just in tradition or natural law, but in the explicit words of Jesus of Nazareth.

This means that admitting to communion people the church considers to be in permanently adulterous relationships wouldn’t just look like a modest development in doctrine. It would look like a major about-face, a doctrinal self-contradiction.

Which is why Pope Francis probably is not actually considering it.

But from small phone calls, large theological crises sometimes grow.

Pope Francis reportedly phoned an Argentine woman the other day to tell her it’s OK for her to receive communion despite the fact that she’s married to a divorced man.

This gesture seemingly is at odds with long-standing church teachings — and thus is of great concern to Catholic traditionalists.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat is one of them, as we see HERE:

Francis could actually be considering a truly major shift on remarriage and communion, in which the annulment requirement is dispensed with and (perhaps) a temporary penance is substituted.

Such a shift wouldn’t just provoke conservative grumbling; it would threaten outright schism. The church has famous martyrs to the indissolubility of Christian marriage, and its teaching on divorce and adultery is grounded not just in tradition or natural law, but in the explicit words of Jesus of Nazareth.

This means that admitting to communion people the church considers to be in permanently adulterous relationships wouldn’t just look like a modest development in doctrine. It would look like a major about-face, a doctrinal self-contradiction.

Which is why Pope Francis probably is not actually considering it.

But from small phone calls, large theological crises sometimes grow.

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